Remember the old television shows, "In Search Of" with Leonard Nimoy, or "Unsolved Mysteries" with Robert Stack? A current version of these shows would be looking for the concept of the offense for the Cleveland Cavaliers. If you watch this team on a game by game basis, and can tell me what they are trying to do with the ball, you might also be able to tell me why Michael Irvin works for ESPN, and how he gets into the Hall of Fame over Art Monk.
There is no plan, no object for this team when they have the ball. The floor spacing is poor, there is too much emphasis on the three point shot and too much pounding the ball on the floor. In short, there is no ball movement when the Cavs are in a half court set, and they do not take advantage of the abilities of the players they have. You can blame this on the lack of a good point guard if you want, but with the offensive concept being this bad, Bob Cousy or Magic Johnson could not succeed in this system.
The Cavaliers have some talent on offense, but they don’t make use of it. Of course, LeBron James is one of the best players on the planet. He can create, post up, can shoot relatively well, and can finish. What is he doing? Setting up the play. He gets the ball too early in the possession which allows teams to double team him and make him give up the ball. The offense should be designed for him to get the ball in an area where he can go to the basket and score or make one pass to someone else who can score. Too often, James is standing 20 feet from the hoop pounding the ball on the floor. That’s a gross misuse of his talent.
They also have a center with a very deft shooting touch. Zydrunas Ilgauskas will never be Bill Russell on defense, nor will he be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on offense. However, he can make an open shot from 15 feet and in, but he doesn’t get that opportunity often. He looks terrible because the offense doesn’t play to his strengths. Larry Hughes is slasher and can run the floor. He displayed last year that we was an excellent mid range jump shooter. This year, most of his jump shot opportunities are from behind the arc.
Drew Gooden isn’t a bad shooter, and does a nice job with jump hooks from in close. They have good three point shooters in Damon Jones and Daniel Gibson, but they don’t have a drive and dish game to set those guys up for open looks. They shoot threes while the ball in being passed around the perimeter. There’s no inside out plan to the offense.
The most disgusting thing about the offensive philosophy is that the organization knew it was a weakness after last season’s playoffs. Yet, nothing was done to fix it. Brown did change his scheme early in the year, but then realized he completely eliminated Ilgauskas as an offensive threat. It has to be addressed, and the sooner the better. The philosophy works against poor defensive teams like the Warriors or the Bobcats, but it crumbles when facing a good team like the Pistons. That’s when coaching needs to kick in.
There must be a better plan on offense the rest of the season. Brown keeps talking about defense, and there is no question that defense wins championships. However, you have to be able to put the ball in the basket as well, and be able to do it when the three point shot isn’t falling. There has to be a new philosophy with the ball, otherwise Mike Brown is going to wind up being a defensive specialist as an assistant coach.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 